It might be counterintuitive, but secondary market research is your ‘must have’ information that is typically conducted first and foremost before any primary market research of your international target markets begins. You might need secondary insights to understand market conditions, consumer behaviour and your competition in foreign markets. International primary research might be a luxury add-on that SMEs on a tight budget may have to skip. Secondary market research is affectionately known as ‘desk research’ for a reason. In this blog post, we will explore various methods and sources of global secondary market research that you as an SME can start immediately from the comfort of your desk.
Understanding global secondary market research
The beauty of secondary market research is that it has been done for you by someone else. It is presented in a ready-made package, complete with insights. Compare primary research, where you spend time and money collecting first-hand data tailored to your company’s products or services. Secondary market research is simply a case of identifying which sources will be the most relevant for you. Some are free to the public and others will come at a cost. Sources providing a wealth of international data include industry and government reports, academic research, competitor analyses, websites, media and news, trade press and social media. Drill down into those secondary sources and you will uncover actionable insights on your target markets.
Benefits:
- Using data and insights produced by others saves both time and money. It is available immediately and cuts out the planning of time-consuming primary research.
- It can provide an overview of market trends, historical data, and industry benchmarks. Multiple years of competitors’ financial reports give long-term growth and stability insights. It can help make a compelling case for potential investors.
- Secondary data can expand the understanding of a market. It can throw up a new perspective and opportunity not previously considered.
- It can prevent expensive mistakes. Secondary research can reveal that others have already examined your idea, and you need to change tack or conduct some primary research to find out if there is a gap in the market that you can fill. It can act as a sounding board on whether to proceed with primary research at all.
5 checkpoints to successfully navigate secondary market research
1. Set goals
- Cultural and language differences are important to identify. Use secondary studies, research and digital listening to get to know your potential clients. Build a cultural understanding of things like localized branding, preferred payment methods and browsing habits. Disney Paris had to start serving wine in France and miscalculated the biggest leisure day of the week. Knowing your local market gives you a strong competitive edge over your international competitors.
- Successful localizers KFC conduct deep research into local culture and adapt their menus to suit religious customs. They have been highly successful in India. Some cultures might prefer cash payment on delivery to card payments. The list is endless.
- Regulatory and certification requirements might create barriers to both entering and exiting. Airlines losing money in certain markets are obliged to continue operating due to numerous contractual obligations. Research and understand legal data requirements from the EU GDPR and others such as the LGPD for Brazil and POPIA for South Africa.
2. Select sources and validate data quality
Choose sources most likely to answer your research questions. They also have to be credible. Inaccuracies or unreliable data will skew your overall insights. You need to scrutinize and validate the research you are using constantly. Check:
- Credibility: Don’t be taken in by a shiny, random online article giving you the answer you were hoping for. Seek out authoritative, well-known, trusted sources.
- Accuracy: Examine data collection methods. The accuracy and reliability of secondary research data vary and are beyond your control. Cross-verify from multiple sources if necessary.
- Culture: Be mindful of cultural and regional differences that might affect data interpretation.
- Purpose: Check the aim of the research. Might the third party have skewed results to lean in a certain direction? One example is recent results showing that ChatGPT-4 scored in the 90th percentile of the bar exam. However, that was only true when measured against people who had already failed and were likely to fail again. It only scored in the 62nd percentile when measured against the general population.
- Target audience: Is the research aimed at industry experts who expect a certain quality of data and detail?
- Dates: Global markets can be more volatile and change suddenly. Check you are using the most current data possible unless you are looking at trends over time.
3. Collect
Use public sources, check out online commercial databases or buy from secondary data agencies, depending on your research questions, goals and budget. Market research companies will use AI to capture multiple relevant sources, which they will then verify. Predictive analysis or real-time market tracking tools can help you mitigate risks. Online tools such as ChatGPT-4o, just launched, will source across text, audio and video, but beware of data privacy issues.
4. Analyze
Categorize your findings into groups or themes to draw meaningful insights. They need to be in a format to present to others. Cut out any irrelevant content. Management and potential investors will want to see an international research report with clear market evidence backing conclusions and recommendations. Excel, Tableau and SPSS, and now free open source R and JASP provide downloadable software for overall statistical analysis.
Particularly useful when analysing foreign markets are:
- PESTEL analysis is used to understand external political, economic, social, technological, environmental, and legal factors affecting profitability.
- Porter’s Five Forces to assess competitors, including new entrants, the bargaining power of suppliers and clients, and the ability of clients to find substitutes in that particular market.
- SWOT analysis to identify Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and threats is an old adage but is especially crucial when going global. You need to find out if your USP stands up against your competitors in a new market, if certain developments like upcoming tariff cuts will give you an added opportunity, or if you could be threatened by potential drought, labour supply or regulatory requirements and certifications, to name a few.
- Do you have the answers to your original research questions? If not, you might need to seek out more secondary data or offset it with primary research to fill in any knowledge gaps specific to your offering.
5. Strategize
Convert your findings into a strategic plan. Identify differences if collecting data on multiple markets to make informed decisions. Pull out key trends, market opportunities, challenges and recommendations based on your own strengths and weaknesses. Could you adapt to fill a niche opportunity as revealed in your research? Master adapter Coca-Cola launched new products to fight off healthy beverage competition and acquired Costa Coffee to take advantage of growing coffee consumption. Use secondary studies, research and digital listening to build a cultural understanding of localized branding and behaviours.
Your secondary research should have provided you with information on product positioning, the most effective marketing channels, pricing strategies and best customer service practices suiting your target market. You should now have a solid foundation for a well-developed business plan.
Reliable sources of global secondary data
Government agencies
Government agencies, including foreign governments, supply various data and statistics on industry, demographics, global economies, trade and culture. Census data can be invaluable when determining population growth, income levels and age demographics. Check out the UK Department for Business and Trade, US Census Bureau, US International Trade Administration, Eurostat, The World Bank Development Indicators and their DataBank on ease of doing business in different countries, the UN ComtradeDatabase for global trade, OECD Stats across all sectors, IMF economic data and foreign investment by country, and global central banks’ inflation reports.
Local trade associations
Local trade associations such as chambers of commerce and business associations publish relevant research data and industry reports. Recordings or videos of business leaders speaking at industry forums will provide you with qualitative research beyond what is available through statistics alone. Check out the British Exporters Association
Academic research
Academic research and case studies from universities and research institutes provide reports and papers covering everything from health to consumer behaviour, market trends, geopolitics and country comparisons. Check out academic databases such as JSTOR, Google Scholar. SSRN has over one million research papers covering 70 disciplines.
Commercial sources
Commercial sources, including market research firms, charge for specialized information through industry reports, databases and subscriptions. Some provide a certain number of free reports. Nielsen in the US offers data from over 100 countries on where clients buy their products and the media they engage with. Check out Statista, IBISWorld, Gartner, Euromonitor International (some free), Mintel on launching new products, and Marigold’s 2024 Global Consumer Index whose insights are explored in the media.
Open research
Open research is available on hub sites where researchers share and work collaboratively. Participants often make their methodology, software and code freely available online (open access) as well as the underlying data (open data). One advantage is that detailed population data, say 1,000 participants shown performing certain transactions over time, can be used, for example, for your own price modelling if you insert your figures. It is almost like primary research without going out and organizing a 1,000-person sample of the population. See SpringerNature, Harvard Dataverse, KOF Globalisation Index and ResearchGate
Competitors
Competitors’ websites, media releases, marketing materials and financial reports provide invaluable information about strategies, products, services, potential growth and opportunistic gaps in the market. Business research is valuable because it is an example of the work another organisation like you has done.
Media
Established news media outlets will provide useful information on trends and cultural behaviour.
Non-profits
Charity organizations, UN agencies, and NGOs are good sources of accurate and current data in emerging markets. They follow due process when collecting data, so they are often more accurate and insightful than governments in certain countries.
Local country-specific databases
Local country-specific databases are mostly available online in English, but you might want to investigate specific local sources using local language service providers, depending on budget. Multilingual AI-based tools can search data regardless of language barriers.
Digital
Just using a search engine will suit all budgets but social listening on all local social media channels provides insights into consumer behaviour, preferences, and emerging trends. Predictive analysis or real-time market tracking tools will also help you mitigate risks. See what consumers are doing online, and track your competitors. Market research companies will use AI to capture multiple relevant sources, which they will verify. Newly launched online tools such as ChatGPT-4o will source across text, audio and video, but beware of data privacy issues.
Language Service Providers
Language Service Providers (LSPs) specialising in market research can make cost-effective global partners when you do not want to spend thousands engaging the full services of a market research agency. They can break down any language barriers. They can also enable you to extract insights from local verbal sources. Audio, video and consumer feedback become valuable sources when translated and transcribed for analysis. Large volumes can’t be analysed for key themes like a commentary on “pricing”. Quality LSPs will use technologies such as AI and machine translation to speed up the process. They can tap into their global teams to perform culturally aware content analysis, and valuable local social listening of social media channel chat. Their local teams will be mindful of cultural nuances affecting data interpretation. Knowledgeable localisation of your products, branding and marketing could be crucial to your success.
Summary
The risk of entering and operating in global markets is undoubtedly higher than at home, requiring more market research to mitigate it. But the payoff is tapping into a whole new pool of potential clients. Operating in more than one country also reduces reliance on any one market. Your reputation will soar as a global brand. Extensive secondary research might provide all the answers you need, but it is always a good idea to add customized primary research if you decide to proceed. Using both will ensure you will be fully prepared for a more challenging market.
Next steps
Start your five steps to begin your global secondary market research. Progress to primary research if you can.
Research quality LSPs if you need a language partner. Check that they are big enough to offer you a global network and clearly specialize in market research, showing membership of ESOMAR (compliance with World Research Guidelines), accreditation as an MRS Company Partner (MRS Code of Conduct) and are ISO 9001 (quality management) and ISO 27001 (Information security) certified.
For further guidance on how a language partner can contribute to your global market research, contact Global Lingo today for a free consultation via telephone, email or online.
Author: www.linkedin.com/in/tcollingridge